Missiles shot down by Syrian air defences: state media

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

17 April 2018 — 10:32am

Amman, Jordan: Syrian anti-aircraft defences have shot down missiles fired at the Syrian air base of Shayrat, in Homs province, and another base north-east of the capital Damascus, Syria's state television, official news agency and pro-Iranian Hezbollah media say.

State television showed pictures of a missile that was shot in the air above the air base on Monday night, local time, only days after a US, British and French attack on Syrian targets, including the ai rbase, in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack on Douma.

State television did not mention three missiles that were fired at Dumair military airport, north-east of Damascus, that pro-Iranian Hezbollah's media service reported were also intercepted by Syrian air defences.

Shayrat air base in Syria, following US Tomahawk Land Attack in April 2017. Credit:Digital Globe

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Opposition sources say Dumair airport is a major air base used in a large-scale military campaign waged by the Syrian army with Russian firepower that regained eastern Ghouta, a rebel enclave on the outskirts of Damascus.

A Pentagon spokesman said there was no US military activity in that area at this time.

Asked about the missile attack, an Israeli military spokesman said: "We don't comment on such reports."

Shayrat air base was targeted last year in a US cruise missile attack in response to a chemical attack that killed at least 70 people, including children, on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.

Smoke rises after Syrian government air strikes on Douma, in eastern Ghouta on April 7.Credit:White Helmets/AP

Israel has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of the conflict, hitting convoys and bases of Iranian-backed militias that fight alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Israel has long said Iran was expanding its influence in a belt of territory that stretches from the Iraqi border to the Lebanese border, where Israel says Iran supplies Hezbollah with arms.

Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militias have a large military presence in Syria and are well entrenched in central and eastern areas near the Iraqi border.